Once we were let in we walked straight up to the hide that looks over Laguna Blanca and quickly found the resident White Stork (Ciguena Blanca / Ciconia ciconia) stood up on it's usual pile of reeds. There were also several Common Moorhens(Gallineta Común / Gallinulas chloropus), Water Rail(Rascón Europeo / Rallus aquaticus), Mallard (Anade Azulón / Anas platyrhynchos), Eurasian Teal (Cerceta Común / Anas crecca) and at least 4x Purple / Western Swamp-hens (Calamon Común / Porphyrio porphyrio) a couple of which showed very well.

Water Rail (Rascón Europeo / Rallus aquaticus).

In the sky and amongst the reeds we also had good views of European Bee-eater (Abejaruco Común / Merops apiaster), Barn (Golondrina Común / Hirundo rustica) and Red-rumped Swallows (Golondrina Dáurica / Hirudo daurica), Spotted Flycatcher (Papamoscas Gris / Muscicapa striata), Hoopoe (Abubilla / Upupa epops), Turtle Dove (Tórtola Europea / Streptopelia turtur), Cetti's Warbler (Ruisenor Bastardo / Cettia cetti), Serin (Verdecillo / Serinus serinus), Common Waxbill (Estrilda Ondulada / Estrilda astrild), Reed Warbler (Carricero Común / Acrocephalus scrpaceus) and then what turned out to be a bit of a surprise when I checked the shots later, I took some record shots of what I thought was just a dark looking Sedge Warbler (Carricerin Común / Acrocephalus schoenobaenus) right on the far side of the pool but when I looked at the shots it had a distinct dark crown, white eye-stripe and pale throat. I asked a couple of good birders to look at the shots and both came back to me with what I had already guest that the bird was in fact an August record for Moustached Warbler (Carricerin Real / Acrocephalus melanopogon).

We walked on the short way to the next hide where we saw several of the introduced Red-knobbed Coot (Focha cornuda / Fulca cristata) and some of their youngsters of the year. We also had a couple of fly past Little Bitterns (Avetorillo Común / Ixobrychus minutus), Common (Vencejo Común / Apus apus) and Pallid Swift (Vencejo Pálido /Apus pallidus) and then all was disturbed when a family of a dozen or so Wild Boar (Jabalí / Felis silvestris) swam across the pool and then came crashing through the reeds showing nicely.

Wild Boar (Jabalí / Felis silvestris).

Time was flying by so we started to make our way to the exit having a quick look in the last hide but we saw nothing new and then went back to the car and headed around the back of the reserve for our sandwiches and then back towards Granada and out to the Cacín Valley.

Wild Boar (Jabalí / Felis silvestris).

We drove across country to the valley not really adding much until we reached the bridge over the Rio and the main Irrigation channel, as we walked the track we saw a female Blue / Common Emperor egg laying in the weeds in the channel which are not normally exposed but the channel was switched off and not flowing very much.